111 Responses to Have any positive news?

My husband will start a new job with a large corporation Monday; this will enable us to eventually live on our own once again. Plus he attended Mass with me last Sunday, which is a VERY big deal because he was raised strict Southern Baptist and now considers himself non-denominational. My family and I have been praying for his conversion for over eight years, this is the first glimmer that he might be interested in the faith. Thanks be to God!

We did a weekend Pre Cana retreat and were quite moved by the experience. The couples & priest running the retreat did a great job. It was the best thing we possibly could have done to help us prepare for marriage.

The Belleville IL diocese is very excited to be ordaining four young men as transitional deacons, plus one permanent deacon, this month. It’s a lot for this small diocese. We continue to pray for God to bless us with more laborers in the field.

This evening the whole kids’ catechism program at the parish where I teach will have a May Crowning procession, with incense, rosary and traditional hymns! The pastor won’t be there, but the young & orthodox DRE has planned the whole thing.

Then we’re having a big end-of-the-year ice cream party!

Traditional devotion after a long hiatus AND ice cream–it’s good news! Let’s pray the pastor will come next year.

Here in St. Louis we are looking forward to two upcoming liturgical events: 1) Bishop Carlson’s Installation Mass on June 10, and 2) Archbishop Burke’s celebration of the Mass in the EF for the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus on September 19.

My six confirmation students were “sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit” by Bishop Clarence Silva (Diocese of Honolulu) last Wednesday – I’m still on cloud 9! I’ll have at least seven new students starting classes in the Fall.

My ultrasound on Monday showed that the baby is growing well. So even though we lost one of the twins, the other is doing fine and if we get to 24 weeks we should be home free! AND I think I did fine on my final exam on Tuesday, and am ready for tomorrow’s final then I am done until after the baby comes!

We are at a wonderful parish, we have just discovered we are expecting our fourth child (our oldest is almost six), and my employment looks secure for next year which is VERY good because my wife stays home and we homeschool. Homeschooling is going well (we love Kolbe Academy). The priest at our parish is supportive of the Catholic faith and homeschooling. And it is SPRING!!!

Here in Rochester, New York, we are as pleased as punch. The Diocese’s interfaith, ecumenical work abounds.
That is why I am so encouraged by events such as this anniversary celebration. Having attended many of these programs, I am always struck by the marvelous scene before me: that people of two faiths, which sadly have been no strangers to long-ago historic tensions and ongoing issues, can so openly and honestly discuss in peace, friendship and mutual respect the similarities and differences between them and look constructively for ways they can make our community a better place. Catholics and Muslims in our community are saying yes to peace and tolerance and yes to opening the lines of communication.

That is why I am so encouraged by events such as this anniversary celebration. Having attended many of these programs, I am always struck by the marvelous scene before us: that people of two faiths, which sadly have been no strangers to long-ago historic tensions and ongoing issues, can so openly and honestly discuss in peace, friendship and mutual respect the similarities and differences between them and look constructively for ways they can make our community a better place. Catholics and Muslims in our community are saying yes to peace and tolerance and yes to opening the lines of communication.

What wonderful news around here! My good news: our new pastor wants to have a Corpus Christi procession. He asked my to find a baldachin (canopy), and after finding nothing, someone found me a great site with a great deal!!! (Thank you, CDUguy!)

My son made his First Holy Communion two Sundays ago, he begs me to take him to Confession each week. I think he has made 5 Confessions so far! We are going to start a Bible reading each night for the children. I am hoping that all 4 of my children will have a religious vocation… 2 Popes and 2 Abbesses, a father can dream, can’t he?

The candidates for confirmation at our parish had a great retreat this past weekend. I think God was really able to reach them through us in a way that hadn’t been done so far. At the least, there was some very high praise from one of the teens who exclaimed, “Wow, this wasn’t boring at all.” On a more personal note, my wife and I are expecting our first (a girl!) to be born in the coming weeks, and just in time for that I got a job in the airline industry and start training next week.

MC’ed for the Bishop at Confirmation this past Sunday: first time with a Bishop. Read the entire Caeremoniale prior, and everything went off perfect. I feel proud at that fact that I’m only a teenager. And our diocese is having Ordination to Transitional Diaconate and Priesthood in the coming weeks!

Last Sunday I attended an OF Mass at Our Lady of the Fields in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which I believe is in Millersville, Maryland. At the beginning of the Mass the priest told the congregation that the opening gesture of greeting your neighbor at the start of the Mass on cue would henceforth cease and desist. “The Bishop said ‘no'”, he told the congregation.

Tommy Reese & Ricky McBrien both spontaneously combusted today when they were advised by their superiors that they would both henceforth be required to distribute communion only on the tongue.
Several well-prepared individuals who co-incidentally happened to be present were treated to an impromptu marshmallow roast. Champagne was strangely available to wash down the marshmallows….

When he was alive, Professor Robert Vasoli, retired then from the Sociology Dept at Notre Dame, would tell me during our phone conversations that things were “going well” whenever Fr. McBrien was moaning about something.

So you gave us some “up news” yourself, Father Z. I am sure that Bob Vasoli put in a good word for you, in heaven, as a result of your blog.

I became a grandfather for the fifth time a few weeks ago.

I read your blog, regularly.

My son studied Latin with Fr. Reggie, who gave him a personal tour of the Vatican. I always pass links to your updates in his regard on to my son, who prays for him and remembers him kindly. If you have any contact with him, let him know that even his youngest former students are grateful for his efforts.
It was just a few years ago that my son studied in Rome with him, in about 2005.

I have just been informed by Her Honor that today Judge Martin Feldman (judge of the federal dictrict court in New Orleans) is being received into the Church today with Hon. Antonin Scalia and Hon. Edith Clement as his sponsors. Please pray for him and all other new members of the Church.

Although Utah is not Capistrano we have swallows building their nests somewhere on my street…and dive-bombing any living creatures that comes within 50 meters of them…including innocent evening-strollers..

My good news which in all honesty dovetails with the post concerning Fr. Reese’s comments is that the bishops are pulling no punches with confronting President Obama re: his positions on life issues. I am amazed and so pleased re: Cardinal George’s blunt comments to Obama in their 30 minute meeting in March: From Catholic News Service (4/24):

Cardinal George offered a candid assessment of his 30-minute meeting with the president at the White House March 18.

“I think on the life issue he’s on the wrong side of history,” the cardinal (Georege) said. “I think he has his political debts to pay, and so he’s paying them.”

Cardinal George said his conversation with the president was polite but substantive.

“It’s hard to disagree with him because he’ll always tell you he agrees with you,” he said. “Maybe that’s political. I think he sincerely wants to agree with you. You have to say, again and again, ‘No, Mr. President, we don’t agree (on abortion).’

Cardinal George said he told the president he was concerned about his decision to rescind the Mexico City policy, which resulted in providing taxpayer money to fund abortion overseas.

“He said we weren’t exporting abortion,” the cardinal said. “I said, ‘Yes we are.’ He would say, ‘I know I have to do certain things here. … But be patient and you’ll see the pattern will change.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, you’ve given us nothing but the wrong signals on this issue.’ So, we’ll see, but I’m not as hopeful now as I was when he was first elected.”

So, I am grateful for what Cardinal George is doing and how he is shepherding the USCCB. You know, the Cardinal was known as Francis the Corrector when he first came to Chicago and I sense that he was in this role when he met with Obama….oh to have been a fly on the wall…

“going to Japan on Sunday! Does anyone know of any beautiful churches to visit around Tokyo”

I’m jealous – may I ask why are you going to tokyo? I lived in chiba and saitama (2 yrs in Japan total). The first year I didn’t really go to Mass, sorry to say, because I didn’t know of any Catholic churches around me. And I was lax about looking (*hanging head in shame*) I just assumed there wouldn’t be any, and I worked on Sundays anyways. The second year I often went to a very small Catholic church in my little town. tatami mats on the floor and everyone took their shoes off at the entrance. And I don’t really like the sign of peace any longer, but in Japan, people bow to each other during that part of the Mass instead of shaking hands. :)

Both of our mothers are in good health (both are in their 70s too), the children (no longer children, but young adults) are doing well in their lives. My husband and I are healthy, the dogs are all healthy, and I earned an “A” in my Statistics course and will graduate from college next weekend (the weekend after Mothers’ Day)

The drought in Maryland appears to be over and the watersheds and water tables are being replenished. Friends sent into countries and into harms’ way are returned, safe healthy and whole.

My niece, born prematurely at 28 weeks, lived 13 days in the NICU and was received into our Lord’s open arms on Sunday night (the family is not Catholic but they do believe in regenerative baptism, I am hopeful they baptized her, and maybe it’s the former protestant in me, but I really have no doubt about where she is).

Now, you ask me, what kind of sick freak are you, posting that in a good news combox? Here’s why. I have a cousin who works for an organization with eugenic roots (don’t think too hard on that one) and we hope and pray that the life and death of this tiny baby will impact her way of thinking about things; the catalytic potential of this to change her mind is great.

Semi-retired, every day now I drive a first grade foster child back to her old neighborhood to attend school, the state’s way of maintaining some continuity in her life. Also I am trying to learn Italian. So…last week I had the bright idea of asking this bambina if she would mind reading my vocabulary words out loud in English while we were driving, and I would say the meaning in Italian. She was agreeable, but in a few minutes she handed my notebook back to me with the lament, “I can’t read these words!”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Thanks anyway.”

A few minutes later the little voice piped up from the back seat, “Guess what! Why don’t I just say stuff and you can say it in your language!”

“Okay!”

“Fish!”

“Pesce!”

“The man went into the store to buy a fish….”

“There is a man on the sidewalk eating an orange….”

It was a complete riot, often challenging, and we both had a lot of fun.

“Arrivaderci, signorina Audrey,” I said as I opened the door for her when we arrived at school. She looked very pleased with herself, I must say, deservedly so.

She suggested that we make Thursday “Study Italian Day,” so I am looking forward to tomorrow, which promises to be un’altra bella giornata.

I’m going to Japan on Sunday! Does anyone know of any beautiful churches to visit around Tokyo?

Matthew, St. Mary’s Cathedral is not beautiful, it is very modern and made of concrete (my husband and I mentally paint frescoes on the walls every time we go to Mass there), but it is still worth a visit for the reproduction of the Pieta and the interesting bust of St. Francis Xavier. Also, there is a lovely Lourdes grotto outside. Here’s the English version of the Archdiocesan website: http://www.tokyo.catholic.jp/eng_frame.html (sorry, I don’t know how to make the link live). If you click on Churches under the Information section, you will see church names and locations. You can also Google the church names and sometimes find directions in English. Hope this helps. Enjoy your visit to Japan.

Spring is here in Alaska. My forsythia has blooms on it, the lilacs are budding, the robins are back, and my tulips are emerging from the mulch. And I passed all my finals, so no more school until fall.

In less then three weeks I’ll be going on a 3day pilgrimage from Paris (France) to Chartres (100 km southwest of Paris). TLM every day! And even more good news: I’ve found a spiritual director to descern what God wants from me…

I think there are at least three “Christinas” posting here. I am not the one having a baby soon, but I am the one with the daughters receiving the sacraments soon. I think henceforth I shall post as “Christina W”

I know it’s ‘late’-this happened on April 30-but I was at the North American Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville, NY, and a pilgrimage group from Rouen, France visited. It was probably the first time in over 100 years that a group from the Martyrs’ home country had been to Auriesville. There were about 25 or 30 people in the group-all ages- led by a young priest in his thirties. He wore his CLERICALS, which is pretty surprising in French priests not in ‘trad’ groups.

I have a devotion to St. Joan of Arc, and so I was really excited to meet people from France, especially since it was from Rouen, the city of her trial and death at the stake. I always wear a medal of St. Joan, and brought along an icon of her that I have. I showed it to some of the pilgrims, and two in particular: a man from Paris who was originally from Lebanon [a writer and musician-he played the organ at their Mass later that day, and he made it sound like Notre Dame de Paris!], and a woman from Orleans who teaches French.

Well, after I talked with the writer about presentations I’ve done on St. Joan, he suggested I do an article on how she is perceived by Americans! Another thing I found out is that he lives in a house in Paris once owned by Renee Falconetti, who played the title role in the classic silent movie ‘THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC’! He met her daughter in the process of buying the house.

But the biggest surprise came from the teacher! When she saw my medal and was examining it, she told me she was…are you ready for this…a descendant of St. Joan’s family! I was so stunned!

I got the writer’s email and snail mail addresses and phone number, and the teacher’s email address and phone number-but no snail mail address.

I went home that day on cloud nine…I kept repeating, ‘I can’t believe I met someone related to St. Joan’!

I started my first class at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit this week. What a great place–scholarly and orthodox. Our teacher’s first words, before discussing some Platonic dialogues: “Let’s begin with a prayer.” Indeed!

Our parish just unveiled a most beautiful statue of Our Lady of Mercy in time for First Holy Communions and Mothers’ Day. The surrounding altar, pedestal and marble accents are nicely done. Finally an image worthy of the parish in her name!

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A bit more food for thought…

“Only one sin is nowadays severely punished: the attentive observance of the traditions of our Fathers. For that reason the good ones are thrown out of their places and brought to the desert.”

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Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

- St. John Paul II

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Should the US Bishops have us return to obligatory "meatless Fridays" during the whole year and not just during Lent?

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“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

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2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests."

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Additional Food For Thought

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

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